1: chance, accident2: a source of danger3: an obstacle on a golf course

How do you use it?

The old docks at the lake were in such disrepair that they had become a hazard and had to be replaced.

Are you a word wiz?

"Hazard" has another meaning -- its original meaning -- that we haven't told you yet. Which of the following do you think is the first meaning of "hazard"?

A. a kind of rope used decorate uniforms

B. a game of chance played with two dice

C. a glass jar used to store medicinal herbs

D. a rodent closely related to the mouse

If you took a chance on B, way to go! Hazard was at first a game of chance played with dice. The English word comes from an early form of French, in which the game was called "hasard." This French word was probably borrowed through Spanish from Arabic "az-zahr," meaning "the dice" or "one of the dice." The English learned the game from the French, and within a few centuries the word for a chance taken on the outcome of a throw of the dice could refer to any venture or risk. Now "chance" or "venture" and "risk" or "peril" are the usual meanings of "hazard."